A new television series featuring 911 calls and the responses of local law enforcement may open old wounds for those close to an incident that's nearly three years old.

The series, entitled "Panic 9-1-1," will air its pilot episode at 9 p.m. Thursday on the A&E network and will feature a segment revolving around a 2010 standoff between police and an armed man at the Farm King store in Macomb.

According to Voice archives, 19-year-old Tennessee resident Jonathan Labbe entered the store on Feb. 3, 2010, with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, demanding ammunition from a clerk. Labbe was pronounced dead later that evening. News reports from the days following the incident indicate Labbe died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The A&E series, which comes just three months prior to the third anniversary of the incident, has sparked some community outrage, particularly among the people who knew the gunman. A Change.org petition created by Cody Roberts, president of the Western Illinois University chapter of To Write Love On Her Arms and personal friend of Labbe, has 242 signatures supporting a move to prevent A&E from airing the episode.

"This series has the potential of impacting many peoples' lives, and in a very negative manner," the petition states. "The gunman may no longer be here to have a voice for himself, but his friends and family still have to live with the events that occurred that day."

For Kathleen Clauson, Labbe's mother and WIU faculty advisor for To Write Love On Her Arms, the series opens wounds that have taken years to heal.

"Basically, the whole program is skewed to show him as some sort of a monster," Clauson said. "We've been through this again and again."

The Voice was unable to reach a representative of the A&E Network or the show's production company, Sirons Media, for comment as of late Tuesday afternoon.

Clauson said she only learned of the upcoming program a few days ago, stating that she was never contacted by the show's producers about the program or to talk about her son. She added that from what she has seen so far, the episode only focuses on his last moments.

"I'm really upset and distraught over it," she said. "Imagine that it's your son, your brother, your best friend, or something like that. This just opens the wounds all over again."

Clauson added that in her opinion, airing any emergency phone call — not just the one placed on Feb. 3, 2010 — for entertainment purposes is "terrible."

Information from the program's website states that a standoff ensued as Labbe "armed himself with weapons and a nearly unlimited supply of ammunition from the Farm King sporting goods section." It's a statement Clauson alleges is inaccurate.

Page 2 of 2 - A Voice article dated Feb. 6, 2010, states that in hindsight, Jeff Nimrick, the store manager who placed the emergency call, did not believe anyone in the store was in any real danger.

"You can tell the shots that he fired were high in the walls and in the ceiling so he never pointed that gun or tried to shoot anybody," Nimrick said in the article. "We didn't know that, but the aftermath, finding where the bullets are, he was not out to kill anybody."

Roberts said he believes Labbe entered Farm King with one purpose — to get the ammunition for the gun so he could kill himself.

"I don't think (the show's producers) looked into the information as much as they should have," Roberts said, adding that his own attempts to contact the network and the show's producers have not been returned.

The show's website also states that 50 people or more were trapped inside the store that day — a statement that conflicts with information reported at the time. According to a Voice article dated Feb. 4, 2010, "Many employees and customers fled the store when Labbe entered the store with the rifle and after shots were fired." The article goes on to state that a total of eight employees remained trapped inside the store after shots were fired.

Rick Severs, president of Farm King Supply Inc, would not comment about the program except to say that the network is airing the episode against the company's wishes.

"The people and staff involved wish to be done with it and want to leave it in the past," he said, adding that the show's film crews were not allowed on Farm King property during filming.

Macomb Police Chief Curt Barker, who was interviewed for the program, said he could not comment on the accuracy of the program until it airs. His perception, he said, was that the program is intended to focus around 911 dispatchers and responders. Most of the questions asked revolved around what dispatchers and officers were thinking at the time, and what was going through the manager's mind during the incident.

The petition against the series can be found at www.change.org/petitions/a-e-network-television-s-series-panic-9-1-1-keep-the-series-from-airing-2.